This set of plugins is meant to be free to use for any Sims2 modders. It is shareware only to the extent that I have elected to share it with anyone that wants to use it, for free. I neither want or need money for writing or maintaining this.
That said, it costs money to run this server (MTS2) who so graciously have allowed them to be hosted here. Nothing in this package will ever nag or ask you for money, but if you think they are worth something, you may elect to make a donation to Mod The Sims 2 at:http://www.modthesims2.com/donate.php
If you do this, you can mention either UniMesh or wes_h in the comments.

Like the original set, these plugins REQUIRE MilkShape 1.7.8 or higher (they run on 1.7.7, but there are skin weight related bugs in MilkShape 1.7.7 and 1.7.7a).

Please download MilkShape 1.7.8 (or later, 1.7.10 and 1.8.0 are out and work) from http://chumbalum.swissquake.ch/ and then these plugins (go ahead and overwrite the ones included with the MilkShape release, then go to the next message and download the manual.

Also note there are tutorals posted in the Tutorials section both here at MTS2 about Sims2 meshing and also at the MilkShape site about using MilkShape (generic meshing). The manual describes the plugin usage, but is not a tutorial.

Changed are:
The Importer, on body meshes, will no longer import a second skeleton. It doesn't even ask anymore.
There are also four new plugins added (all of which have been available here at MTS2 for testing).

Interim Importer Update: I have rolled back the V409A3 importer, which is not feeling well and crashes, back to the V409A importer. You need only download and replace the single file. My apologies.

Hi Wes! Thanks for making the document. (I need all the help I can get! I do have one question that I didn't find, or understand the answer for. Is snapping a vertice and welding the same thing? If I add parts to my mesh and snap one point to attach it, does that break the mesh? Should I just line it up instead, adjacent to the area I want it to belong to?

Snapping should be just moving vertice B to the same place as vertice A.
This is OK.
Welding, per se, isn't bad, but welding the wrong stuff is.
I will try to explain without pictures.

We will think about a vertex at the corner of a simple cube (made from 12 traingles). This same exact point is a corner of 6 different triangles (make one in MilkShape and count) that are part of three faces (two triangles each).

If you UV map the cube so that it is laid out unfolded like a cross (probably the most common method), every one of the corner points of each face will be at a different spot on the UV map, so each will need a unique UV pair.

The two triangles that make up each face can be welded at the corner because they will have the same normal and UV, but we still need the three seperate vertices because we will have three different UVs.

This is the way the Sims2 meshes work. There are other ways to represent a mesh that would support collapsing all six points to one, instead of three, but there were likely performance reasons that the current method was selected. As usual, every method has its own advantages and drawbacks, and I believe that the Sims2 method is just fine, but you can break it with MilkShape and welding.

Now quite a while ago I wrote a piece of code that unwelds the model where needed before export. However, the extra normals sometimes get lost from the welding, and thus can adversely affect the rendering. This often shows as unwanted shading around the edges of something.

Unfortunately, this code got disconnected from the posted version. It's in the program, but no longer gets used. Thanks to SnowStorm's careful attention to detail this got found, and I have corrected it.

I am going to post a 4.07A exporter update (in the first message). Maxis models you would import and not weld the seams on will export just fine with the old exporter, but without the model integrity checks welded models will not render their texture properly in game.

Undying fame, wealth and health will be bestowed unto wes_h for helping out all obsessed Sims2 creators in the world! HAIL!

Gee, I haven't had this much adulation from girls since I was in the 8th grade and spent the summer away at my Grandmother's house (new kid on the block syndome).

But back then, no one offered me any booby prizes.

Let's just try to make sure they perform as advertised for all the meshes out there before y'all start a parade. I know that there are some, like the Cowplant, that are too complex for the program as-is. I'll be plugging away here to try to fix that. If I get it working, it will only be usable in a as-yet-unreleased MilkShape update.

As a body and accessories mesher I guess that moving to new and scary areas of creation is needed in order to fully enjoy these, but at least learning new tools again won't be needed and your plugins are wonderfully user-friendly
All my admiration and gratitude as ever!

I was having problems exporting one of my meshes that I'd added parts to. It told me that there were unassigned boens. I'd looked it over and could not find them. SO, I found this the other day and jsut now installed it and now I'm able to export my m3sd file to a SimPE file. It told me I had unassigned bones but allowed me to export anyway. I'll see if it breaks in the game and get back to you.

I was having problems exporting one of my meshes that I'd added parts to. It told me that there were unassigned boens...
SO, I found this the other day and jsut now installed it and now I'm able to export my m3sd file to a SimPE file.

I changed the error to a warning. I don't think you will get the results you want without bones assigned to all the parts.

Here is how to find them:

Hide all your morph groups, and if you have more than one base group hide all but one (and work them one-at-a-time).

Go to the Model tab in MilkShape, click on the Select button, then hold down shift and drag so you select the whole model.

Hey, i'm sorta new to this site, actually, i'm really new to this site, i just signed up yesterday and i've been trying to download the Unimesh, but everytime i click on the download, it goes to the 'page cannot be displayed' thing, i tried it on all the other computers too, but they all show the same thing, does anybody think they can help me? Please, because i really want to learn meshing and i can't do it, so... yeah, thanks!